Knitted sweater of corresponding garment article, and a method of manufacturing it

ABSTRACT

The invention is a garment and a process for making a garment. A garment in accordance with the invention includes a plurality of sewn together prewashed and shrunk knitted pieces each made from cotton yarn and each having a low residual shrinkage after preworking and shrinking; and at least one woven piece of fabric stitched to the plurality of sewn together knit pieces.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a knitted sweater or a correspondinggarment article, and to a method of manufacturing such a knitweararticle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A special feature of this article is that it is knitted of a specialyarn, viz. preferably indigo dyed cotton yarn, that is the same type ofyarn as used in the so-called cowboy or denim cloth, known for beingextraordinarily wear resistant, though not particularly soft. The yarnis rather difficult to use in knitting machines, but it may be used,after all, and the product is a knitwear which is softer that the wovenfabric and thus well suited for knitted sweaters and the like, whichwill then similarly be highly wear resistant.

Certain parts of the garment, viz. the collar and the so-calledbutton-bands, i.e. the vertical front side parts in which there ismounted cooperating snap fasteners or provided buttons and button holes,respectively, may advantageously, both stylewise and functionally, bemade of the said woven and more rigid denim/jeans fabric. The inventionrelates to this particular combination, i.e. to a knitwear articlehaving a collar of a rigid character and optionally having button-bandswell suited as a mounting base for closure means, all with a harmonicfabric selection with consistent use of extra wear resistant and almostunlimited washable materials.

However, there is a problem in that the knitted fabric will shrink inwashing more that the woven fabric, whereby there is a pronounced riskof a forthcoming formation of folds along the woven fabric pieces. It isknown that this type of improvement can be made in arranging for themore rigid parts to be stretched by the stitching together with theother parts, just as during the stitching work it is possible tocompress the less rigid fabric, but such a technique is unsuitable when,as here, relatively marked differences are in question.

With the invention it is a basic condition that an already indigo dyedcotton yarn is made into fully-fashioned knitwear pieces in flatknitting machinery, and that these pieces are subsequently sewn togetherfor forming the desired knitwear articles. According to the presentinvention the fully-fashioned knitwear pieces as produced by the flatknitting are made of a relatively loose knitting with a pronouncedoversize amounting to some 20-40% and preferably 30-35%, whereafterthese pieces are subjected to a washing treatment with a followingaccelerated drying, preferably by washing in bundles with a subsequenttumbler drying, whereafter the fabric pieces are sewn together, partlywith each other and partly with one or more of the said woven fabricparts for the formation of the final product. By this method theknitwear pieces will shrink to suitable sizes and to a suitable rigidityof the knitting, and it is a resulting consequence that the woven fabricpieces can now be stitched on with a minimum of attention and withoutany special stretching requirements. The knitted fabric pieces will bepractically ready-shrunk and `condensed`, such that later on the wovenpieces will not get wrinkled. In departing from a pronounced looseknitting the fabric pieces may be so widely deformed that a possiblerest shrinkage later on will correspond to a modest shrinking of thewoven fabric, and the conditions may be so adapted that the two types offabric will behave uniformly.

As products, knitwear articles according to the invention arecharacteristic in that as fresh from the factory products they appearwith sewn together, fully-fashioned knitwear pieces assuming a state inwhich, as a result of a previous washing treatment, they are condensedso as to have a low residual shrinkability also in the areas where thesaid woven fabric pieces are sewn on, whereby the joining areas can besmooth.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the following the invention is described in more detail withreference to the drawing, which shows a sweater according to theinvention. The sweater shown is generally made of a knitted fabric 2 ofindigo dyed cotton yarn, with a stitched-on collar 4 and button-bands 6and 8 as woven fabric pieces of a corresponding yarn, whereby the collarconstitutes a smooth and rigid part while the button bands form solidbase parts for the fixation of buttons or snap fasteners, optionally forthe provision of button holes.

The single knitwear pieces stitched together for forming the sweater areknitted on flat knitting machinery as fully-fashioned pieces with arelatively loose knitting and with an oversize of 30-35%. Thereafter thepieces are brought to a laundry, where they are washed, not necessarilywith soap, and dried in a drying tumbler, whereby they are shrunk to thedesired size and density. Thereafter the preshrunk pieces are sewntogether, mutually and with the woven pieces 4 and 6,8, whereafter theproduct is handled as a unit. The woven pieces can be fixed by ordinarysmooth sewing, without special complications or precautions.

The new sweater may shrink slightly when being washed, but not with anydisproportion between the shrinking of the knitted fabric and the wovenparts, such that the sweater will generally maintain its shape.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the bands6,8, if any, being short or long, i.e. whether or not they arethrough-going along the front side of the sweater. Moreover the articlemay be provided with additional pieces of the woven fabric in selectedareas, e.g. in a facing area at the front side, though this will be amatter of design only. The invention makes it possible to work almostuncritically with the discussed fabric combination, this applyinggenerally to cotton products and widely comparable products.

I claim:
 1. A garment comprising:a plurality of sewn togetherfully-fashioned knitwear fabric pieces each made from knitted cottonyarn and each, prior to being sewn together, being relatively looselyknitted with a pronounced oversize, and being laundered prior to beingsewn together to shrink the oversized pieces to a suitable size anddensity and a state of low residual shrinkage; and at least one wovenpiece of fabric which is more rigid than said shrunk fully-fashionedknitwear fabric pieces stitched to the plurality of sewn togetherknitwear fabric pieces at smooth joining areas whereby with a subsequentwashing of the garment said at least one piece of woven fabric of saidgarment will not get wrinkled.
 2. A garment in accordance with claim 1wherein:the at least one woven piece of fabric is made from cotton yarn.3. A garment in accordance with claim 1 wherein:the cotton yarn of theplurality of sewn together knitwear fabric pieces is indigo dyed.
 4. Agarment in accordance with claim 2 wherein:the at least one woven pieceof fabric is made from indigo dyed cotton yarn.
 5. A garment inaccordance with claim 1 wherein:the cotton yarn of the plurality of sewntogether knitwear fabric pieces is indigo dyed; and the at least onewoven piece of fabric is made from indigo dyed cotton yarn.
 6. A garmentin accordance with claim 1 wherein:the at least one woven piececomprises a collar and button bands.
 7. A garment in accordance withclaim 2 wherein:the at least one woven piece comprises a collar andbutton bands.
 8. A garment in accordance with claim 3 wherein:the atleast one woven piece comprises a collar and button bands.
 9. A garmentin accordance with claim 4 wherein:the at least one woven piececomprises a collar and button bands.
 10. A garment in accordance withclaim 5 wherein:the at least one woven piece comprises a collar andbutton bands.
 11. A garment in accordance with claim 1 wherein:the atleast one woven piece of fabric covers part of at least one knit piece.12. A garment in accordance with claim 1 wherein:the knitwear fabricpieces are shrunk in an amount in the range of 20% to 40%.
 13. A processfor manufacturing a garment comprising:knitting a plurality offully-fashioned knitwear fabric pieces each made from cotton yarn andbeing relatively loosely knitted with a pronounced oversize; washing anddrying the plurality of knitwear fabric pieces to shrink the pluralityof oversized pieces to a suitable size and density and a state of lowresidual shrinkage; providing at least one piece of woven fabric whichis more rigid than said shrunk, fully-fashioned knitwear fabric pieces;and sewing the plurality of shrunk knitwear fabric pieces together andstitching the at least one piece of woven and more rigid fabric to thesewn together plurality of shrunk knitwear fabric pieces at smoothjoining areas to assemble the garment whereby with subsequent washing ofsaid garment said at least one piece of woven fabric of said garmentwill not get wrinkled.
 14. A process in accordance with claim 13wherein:the at least one woven piece of fabric is made from cotton yarn.15. A process in accordance with claim 13 wherein:the cotton yarn of theplurality of sewn together knitwear fabric pieces is indigo dyed.
 16. Aprocess in accordance with claim 14 wherein:the at least one woven pieceof fabric is made from indigo dyed cotton yarn.
 17. A process inaccordance with claim 13 wherein:the cotton yarn of the plurality ofsewn together knitwear fabric pieces is indigo dyed; and the at leastone woven piece of fabric is made from indigo dyed cotton yarn.
 18. Aprocess in accordance with claim 13 wherein:the at least one woven piececomprises a collar and button bands.
 19. A process in accordance withclaim 14 wherein:the at least one woven piece comprises a collar andbutton bands.
 20. A process in accordance with claim 15 wherein:the atleast one woven piece comprises a collar and button bands.
 21. A processin accordance with claim 16 wherein:the at least one woven piececomprises a collar and button bands.
 22. A process in accordance withclaim 17 wherein:the at least one woven piece comprises a collar andbutton bands.
 23. A process in accordance with claim 13 wherein:the atleast one woven piece of fabric covers part of at least one knitwearfabric piece.
 24. A process in accordance with claim 13 wherein:theknitwear fabric pieces are shrunk in the range of 20% to 40% in saidwashing and drying step prior to said sewing together.